Hands Down
by Marine L. Girard
Summary: AU-ish. Matt meets a strange girl in the local Los Angeles Game Stop. Their conversation ends up with him giving her his phone number. Later, what happens when she calls him up for the first time right before he gets shot? Rating for language. MattxOC
1. Chapter 1

**A/N: Yeah, first Matt fic. I had read the first two and a half books of Death Note before watching the Anime and before that, when I saw pictures of him, my immediate thoughts were: "What is Light doing with goggles and a cigarette?" But anyway, I did not realize who he was until I watched the anime and even then, I did not understand why people liked him so much because his existance lasted for only (this is exadurated) two seconds. So then I borrowed the rest of the manga from my friend and then it was like a revalation! This guy is awsome! He has but two seconds of screen time, a bit more in the manga and yet he has more fans than Near, Light, and Mello combined. Funny huh?**

**Discalimer: I do not own Death Note or anything else mentioned in this story aside from Zoe and Carrie. Everything else belongs to Tugumi Ohba, Takeshi Obata, and the respectable owners of the lovely Game Stop store, and Ford motor company. Lucky bastards...**

**SOME TWIT JUST PUT AND ALERT ON THIS STORY!! THE DAMN THING IS FINISHED FOR FUCK'S SAKE! DON'T PUT ALERTS ON THIS GOD DAMN STORY!!**

Chapter 1 These Hearts They Race from Self Control

Zoe Mckinsey grabbed her car keys and turned to her friend and new roommate, Carrie Thomas, who sat on their recently moved couch and attempted to set up their television set.

"Carrie, I'm going out to buy a new video game, you want to come?" Her best friend for five years looked up from her task and shook her head.

"No thanks, Zo," she answered before turning back to her work. "I'll just stay here and finish unpacking."

Zoe shrugged. "Whatever, your choice; but you won't get a say-so in what game I buy." She walked out of her UCLA dorm room into the scorching, southern California summer heat. She heard Carrie mumble a short "whatever" before the door closed and Zoe walked down from the second-story balcony to the student-housing parking lot. She took out her car remote and pressed the unlock button, slipping into the driver's seat and taking in a short, surprised breath. Her car was a sweat box! She had only just shut the door and Zoe could already feel sweat trickling out of every one of her pores.

"Holy shit, it's hot." Taking out her key, she inserted it into the ignition and turned it. As soon as she heard the engine roar to life and her stereo blast one of her favorite Godsmack CDs, she rolled down both front windows with the flip of a switch on her car door. Switching the transmission into reverse, she backed out of her parking space and turned onto the road, speeding off towards her favorite gaming store. As she drove, the warm wind that entered the cab through the open window billowed her light brown, mid-back-length hair around and she constantly had to push it back out of her eyes as she drove so she could see the street. _It's better than suffering a heat stroke while driving, _she thought bitterly.

She was hoping for an uneventful drive to the store but her dreams were shot down when she stopped at a stop light and a car with two, in her opinion, ugly Hispanic guys pulled up in the lane beside her. She tried not to look at them as the one in the passenger's seat motioned to the driver and pointed at Zoe. They both smiled and began cat-calling and wolf-whistling at her. Annoyed, she reached down to her stereo and turned up the volume, intentionally blotting out the two men. Mainly, her actions were so she could drown out the horrible booming of their own radio. Rap with the base turned up as loud as it could go was not something she wanted to hear, especially when one of her favorite songs just started playing; The Enemy by Godsmack.

Finally, the light turned green and she slammed on the gas pedal, trying to out-distance the guys beside her. Fortunately, Zoe's rich doctors for parents bought her a Ford Mustang for her eighteenth birthday in early January and the brilliant blue car left the men's run-down piece-of-crap 1960's convertible lying in the dust. Relieved that she was away from the two that creeped her out, she turned left at the next light and pulled into a shopping center parking lot right in front of her favorite Game Stop. Zoe pulled on the parking brake and turned off the engine, stepping out of her car; she headed into the store and locked the doors with her remote without even stopping. _Now, where is that game I wanted?_

She perused the aisles in search of one game; all others did not even stand out to her. Her one-track mind kept her focused in her search and she did not even stop to look at any other games that she saw and might have thought interesting on any normal day of game shopping. Finally, as she reached the back of the store, she saw it. Zoe's eyes widened with excitement when the light blue cover was caught in her sight. Running over to it, she grabbed it and held it in her hand and examined the cover with the man dressed in a white cloak armed to the teeth with every weapon known to man. _Alright!_ She yelled in her head. _The last one! Score one for Zoe!_

Just as she was about to check the price on the back, a deep, obviously male, voice sounded from behind her and snapped her out of her reverie.

"Are you going to stand there and look at it or buy it?"

--

An almost burnt-out cigarette fell on the sidewalk where a heavy leather boot came down on top of it, effectively putting out the lit end. Mail Jeevas, more commonly known as Matt to everyone he met, stood outside the Game Stop in a small shopping center in Los Angeles, California. He stopped in front of a bright blue Ford Mustang parked right in front of the door to the store. _Nice car,_ he thought. _Whoever owns this must be rich_. He wished he had the money for a car like that, but the job he just barely was able to keep at the local Best Buy could barely pay off his bills, let alone a nice car like the one next to him, and the money he spent on cigs did not help either. Sighing deeply, he walked away from the car and into the store to buy the game he had been meaning to buy for the past month. He knew exactly where the game was, he had seen it many times. His only hope was that there was at least one left for him to purchase.

Walking all the way to the back of the store, almost jumped for joy when he saw that there was only one left, but then he felt his heart sink when a girl walked out of the aisle next to him and grab it before he could make a move towards it. _Damn,_ he cursed to himself. _The strange girl got to it first. _She certainly was strange to him. She wore her light-brown hair down and the ends reached to just past her shoulders, showing her slightly tan, bare back from the dark maroon halter top she wore. Her tight light-blue jeans had large holes all over them, showing the black and purple stripped leggings she had on underneath, including a particularly big hole in her butt where her right back pocket should have been. The end of her pant legs were torn off, showing the rest of her bare legs past the end of her stripped leggings. On her feet she wore bright magenta-colored converse shoes with either no socks, or none-showing socks.

_Yeah, I'm one to talk. _He was quite strange-looking himself, with a black and red stripped long-sleeve shirt and black leather gloves on in the middle of summer in southern California, orange-tinted goggles and black leather boots, he certainly was an odd sight. The only thing that seemed rather normal about him was the wallet chain connecting his wallet that resided in his back pocket to a belt loop in his blue jeans. _Thank God it's too hot for my vest; otherwise she would REALLY think I was some sort of weirdo. The only reason I wear it is because it's warm and comfy._

Matt continued to stare at her, concluding that she looked rather cute even though he had not even seen her face yet. As he watched her, he noted that all she did was look at the game she was holding. _Well, maybe she isn't going to buy the game after all? _He shrugged. _It's worth a shot anyway._ Deciding to just wing it, he walked up behind the girl and said the first thing that came to his mind.

"Are you going to stand there and look at it or buy it?" _Yeah, that was a nice thing to say, Matt. Smooth, real smooth. _"If not, I'll buy it." Matt mentally kicked himself. _Why can't I stop being so rude? Aaarg! _

He had obviously ticked the woman off for the next thing she said sounded agitated and upset. "Of course I'm going to buy it," she said as she turned around to face him. "What does it look-?" She paused as soon as she laid her eyes on him. He watched as her hazel eyes looked him up and down. She really was cute, just as he thought.

--

Zoe stopped in her tracks when saw the man who had spoken to her. Red hair, orange goggles, red and black stripped shirt, blue jeans, wallet chain, black leather gloves, and black leather boots. He had to be the cutest guy she had ever seen in her life. Before she could stop herself, she opened her mouth and spoke what was on the tip of her tongue.

"Holy crap, can I have you number?" Immediately, she clapped a hand to her mouth and looked at him. He had a confused look on his face and a slight hint of red graced his cheeks after she had spoke. "Oh, I am so sorry, I didn't mean…well, I did, but…what I met to say was…oh fuck it!" She stopped for a moment. "You're really cute, okay?" _Dammit! What am I saying? He probably thinks I'm __a total freak right now. Oh, what to do!? _She silently screamed at herself. WHY did her mouth have move faster than her brain? Why, oh WHY?

"You…you want my number?" he asked, sounding unsure of what she had said. "I'm…cute?"

By now, Zoe's face had turned tomato red from embarrassment. She averted her eyes to a rack of old GamBoy games to her left and nodded slowly. What he said next was definitely not what she had expected and she nearly choked on her own spit when she heard it.

"Well, you're cute, too, I guess." He obviously had not planned on saying what he did, then again, neither did she. Her head shop upward and she saw that his slight blush had turned a shade darker. _That was…unexpected,_ she thought, surprise written all over her face.

"Oh, my name's Zoe," she said, holding out her hand. He took it and smiled, the game in her hand temporarily forgotten.

"Cool name. Nice to meet you, Zoe." She managed a cute, little smile before he spoke again. "I guess it would be okay for me to give you my number. I don't really have that many people to talk to anyway."

Zoe's heart nearly jumped into her throat, restricting her from talking for a few seconds. She reached into her back pocket and pulled out her cell phone. Flipping it open, she clicked "new contact" and handed the phone to the red-head in front of her. "Here, enter your name and number and press save." He took her phone from her hand and did as she had instructed. Satisfied after a few seconds of messing with the key pad of her phone, he handed it back to her and she studied the new name on her contacts list. "Matt?" She looked up at the goggle head. "Is that your name?" _Well, duh._ _Of course it's his name, why would he have put in my phone if it wasn't? _

Matt nodded. "Yeah, that's my name." _Great, he's probably regretting giving me his number now. God, I sound like an idiot!_

Suddenly, she remembered the game she had in her hand and held it out to him. "Oh! You wanted this game, didn't you?" She smiled at him. "You can have it; I'll just buy something else."

Matt just shook his head. "No, that's okay, you buy it. I'll get another one somewhere else." Zoe was slightly taken aback at his words, but soon shrugged them off and continued back down the aisle to see if there was anything else she wanted to buy before heading back to her dorm where Carrie was waiting, probably with their new PS3 set up and turned on.

"So," she began, trying to start small talk in order to know him better. "Do you buy stuff from here often?"

Matt followed her and browsed the game cases with her, his hands lingering over a Jak 3 case before he answered her question. "Yes, I buy all my games and systems from here. It's cheaper that way."

Zoe nodded. "Play much?" was all she said as she pulled out a Final Fantasy game for PS2 and began reading the back.

"When I'm not working, yes. You?"

"As much as I can when I don't have school work or am going for a run."

Matt stopped what he was doing and looked at her. "You're still in school? How old are you?"

Zoe stared at him for a moment, debating whether she should tell him her age or not. After a few seconds, she made up her mind and decided it wouldn't be too bad if she told him. Turning back to the shelves and putting the Final Fantasy game back, she said: "I'm eighteen and will be attending UCLA this coming school year. What about you? You said that you work, but you look too young to have graduated college. How old are YOU?" She saw him hesitate out of her peripheral vision and smirked. That question certainly surprised him.

"Uh, I'm nineteen. Have been since the beginning of February." Zoe smiled sweetly, which made his cheeks turn pink ever-so-slightly. She turned back to the video games neatly set on the shelf side-by-side when there was a sudden shout from the front of the store that sounded like a very angry and pissed off man.

"MATT!"

--

"Uh, I'm nineteen. Have been since the beginning of February," He said in answer to her question. He had not expected her to ask him his age, but then again, he had asked her the same thing so it was only natural for her to ask his. Matt watched her sift through the game cases, her eyes concentrated hard on what she was doing. She seemed intent on finding another good game to buy, but then again, did not every real gamer want a good game and not some run-of-the-mill cheep-ass game? He saw her smile when she found a game that she had both played before and really liked, or one that she had seen before and wanted to buy. He leaned over and saw that the red letters on the side of the case spelled out _Beijingai. Hm, must be Chinese, _he thought when he noticed someone outside the shop, someone who looked really familiar. _Oh, fuck._

It was Mello. How he had managed to track Matt down to this one store was beyond him. In a desperate attempt to get away, he tried to hide behind Zoe, who did not seem to notice. It did not work, unfortunately, seeing as she was several inches shorter than himself and it only signified Mello to his presence in the store and he walked in, yanking to door open a bit too hard for the hinges and an audible creek emanated from the metal pieces.

"MATT!" he screamed so loud that everyone in the store stopped what they were doing and turned to see what all the commotion was about. Zoe looked up, and stared at the man who had shouted out Matt's name. She seemed surprised, not expecting anyone to shout out the name of the man she had just met with such distain.

Mello stalked up to Matt, fuming, and glared at him. "What do you want, Mello?" Matt asked, sounding calm and serene, but on the inside, his mind was a whirlwind of worry-filled thoughts. He knew Mello had been trying to contact him for days. Matt's cell phone had been going off almost non-stop with the caller-ID the same every time; Mello. He did not know why Mello had been trying to contact him so eagerly, but when he did not wake up to the sound of his phone going off at five that morning, Matt hoped that he had given up; though his conscience scolded him for having such far-fetched hopes. Mister long-and-narrow-tunneled mind would never give up until he either died, or accomplished his goal.

"You should know why I'm here. I need your help with the Kira case." Matt sighed and looked at his childhood friend, just now noticing the big, ugly burn scar on the left side of his face.

Apparently, Zoe noticed it as well because she blurted out: "Holy crap, what happened to you!?"

Matt stared at her for a few seconds. She seemed completely serious and did not look like she regretted her words one bit. Unfortunately for her, if Mello decided to snap from something like this, she would learn to regret saying what she did. Tearing his eyes away from Zoe, he looked at his long-time friend and noticed a vein on his temple a bit larger than it should have been. He had obviously gone through great lengths to hide his scar but even then, it was quite noticeable. _Oh God, Mello, please don't blow your top here. _He did not, but it took him quite a while to cool down from her little statement.

"An accident, no need for you to know," he told her dryly before turning back to Matt. "Who is this, Matt, your new girlfriend or something?" Matt noticed Zoe blushed slightly out of the corner of his eye and turned back to the shelf of games, trying to hide the fact that she actually blushed at Mello's absurd remark.

Matt shook his head. "No, Mello, she isn't. I just met her not five minutes ago."

"Mello?" Zoe plunged ahead again. "That's a funny name." Matt noticed Mello's right eye twitch from bottled-up anger; she was definitely getting on his nerves.

"Good, you can ditch her," he stated to Matt, who tried putting up a protest.

"B-but, Mello, you can't just-."

"I just did, now get your ass moving. We got a mass murderer to catch and Near to beat." Mello grabbed Matt's shirt sleeve and proceeded to pull the poor gamer out of the shop. Matt resisted enough to stop in front of Zoe and apologize on his friend's behalf.

"Sorry about Mello, Zoe. Once he's set his mind to something, there is no stopping him."

"That's alright, have fun." She let out a chuckle when Mello gave Matt another tug on his sleeve, making the red-head lose his balance, stumble, and regain his footing several feet away from where he was.

"Call me whenever you want, Zoe!" he called as he was dragged out of the store. "I'll pick up!" Then he was out of Game Stop and shoved into the passenger's seat of a rather fancy red sports car.

--

Zoe blinked several times as she watched poor Matt getting shoved into the front seat of the red sports car parked right next to her own Mustang. The only thing she could say when the car drove away was: "Holy crap, it's like a kidnapping."

**A/N: Yeah, don't scream at me but in case you haven't noticed, Zoe likes to say "Holy Crap" a lot. It's just the way her character is. Oh, and in case you were wondering, the game Zoe and Matt went to buy is called Assassin's Creed. I've never played it, but God do I want to! It's made by the same people who made Prince of Pursia so it has to be good. Plus that Israli assassin looks really cool.**

**Sorry, but this is only going to be three chapters. I've already finished it so you all have no say in the matter. Plus, if I made it any longer, I probably would never finish it. It was a pain just to get three chapters done when one wants to work on something else. So, yeah, get over it.**

**Review please! If you don't, I'll stab your eyes out with a fork! Yeah! A fork!**


	2. Chapter 2

**A/N: Okay, in the next, and last, chapter, I will tell you all the meaning behind the name of this fic. If you have already figured it out, then congratulations! You get no prize other than self satisfaction. **

**Disclaimer: I only own crazy Keiko in this chapter, everthing else goes to the ingenious owners of Death Note and the country of Japan.**

Chapter 2 Safe in Here from All the Stupid Questions

Zoe walked down the sidewalk next to a Tokyo street. Winter break was over and she had gotten the chance from UCLA to study abroad in Tokyo, Japan. Not wanting to pass up the opportunity, she immediately accepted the offer and packed her things right away. She still kept in contact with Carrie through the phone and E-mail but because E-mail cost her nothing, that was usually how they communicated.

Tokyo was rather deserted at nine o'clock at night; there was barely anyone out walking and only a few cars passed by on the street. It was nice to feel like you had some elbow room, unlike rush hour where there was barely any place to put your hands without feeling like you were going to violate the person in front, back, or to the side of you.

It had been almost six months since Matt had been dragged away from her by Mello and taken away. Even in that amount of time, she had not called him once; she could not bring herself to call him. Unlike her mouth, her hands actually stopped to think of what they were doing before they actually did it. Another possibility popped into her head whenever she thought about calling Matt; what if Mello answered? By how he acted when she had first met him, he really did not like her at all. _Come to think of it, I don't like Mello either._ Mello had this arrogant aura about him that seemed to radiate off anyone, or anything, around him. He was bossy, domineering, and conceited; she honestly did not know why Matt was friends with him. The man had serious anger problems as well; she remembered well when she mentioned his scar or his name, he was on the brink of snapping and ripping her head off, yet she could not bring herself to stop her remarks. She now wished that she had actually called Matt at least once over the months, that is why she asked for his number, right?

As she arrived at a rather large intersection, she noticed that tons of people were gathered around a big television screen built into the side of one of the many buildings that lined the street. Stopping at the edge of the crowd, she looked up at the screen and noticed that it was the news, live feed of Lady Takada walking into the NHN building. _Yippee, _she thought sarcastically. _All she is is a fucking tool for Kira; who, by the way, is probably just some retarded human bastard who had gotten it into his head that he could live forever and become a God. Pish, like that could ever happen. I don't see how people can be so fond of Takada, seriously. _

Suddenly, there was a loud screech on the television and the camera was diverted from Takada just in time to see a young man with red hair and goggles fire off a smokescreen gun. Then another screech was heard through the smoke and the camera was switched off and the view was turned back to the anchorman. _What the-? _Zoe could not believe what she had just seen. _That was…no…it couldn't have been. He's back in America right now. _Shaking off the possibility that the person on the TV was Matt, she continued on her way when she stopped in her tracks from her phone ringing in her back pocket. Taking it out, she flipped it open and pressed the "talk" button.

"Hey, mom," she said after reading the caller-ID. "How's it going over there, you on break?"

"Yes, I just came out of a major surgery. I just wanted to see how you were doing."

Zoe sat down on a bench that faced the street. "I'm fine. Just walking back to my car after going to see a movie, you?" Yes, she did have her blue Mustang with her. She had protested about bringing it to Japan with her but after a harrowing battle, her mother and father had won her over, insisting that she would need it.

"I'm fine. How are things over there? Keiko feeding you well?"

"Yes mom, Keiko's feeding me well." Zoe sighed. Keiko was her very attractive, and rather horny, Japanese roommate at the college she was attending. Keiko was studying nursing at the university. _That explains it, _Zoe thought as she rolled her eyes. _Being horny is how mom and dad met, and had me most likely. _

"You getting enough sleep at night?" her mom asked, still prying.

Suddenly, a little more than half a dozen black sedans sped into the intersection and stopped at each out-going road, blocking the entrance and exit of any cars that entered from the one open street or the other three that were blocked. "Uh, yeah mom, I'm getting enough sleep. Listen, could you hold on for a sec?"

"Sure thing, honey."

Removing the phone from her ear, Zoe walked up to one of the many people that had been herded to the side of the road. "Excuse me," she said in almost perfect Japanese. "Could you please tell me what's going on?"

The person she asked, a middle-aged man who looked rather excited, turned to her and almost shouted at her with excitement. "They're going to corner the man from the television here and kill him! All defilers of Kira must be punished by death." That said, the man turned back to the scene unfolding before them.

"Okay, sorry mom, I'm back," she said after placing the receiver back on her ear and shoving her way to the front of the crowd. "So, lose any patients today?"

"Just a few, but most of them your father and I were able to save."

"That's cool," she replied, not really listening. She was more interested in seeing if the man in the car was really Matt or not. As soon as she had reached the front of the crowd and had a clear view of the intersection, the red car shown on the large building screen spun to a halt in the center of all the black sedans stationed around the intersection. "Hey wait a minute! That car looks like Mello's!"

"What was that, dear?" her mother asked from the other line.

"Nothing, mom. Nevermind." Zoe looked to see who was sitting in the driver's seat of the red sports car. She saw red hair, orange tinted goggles, a cigarette hanging out of his mouth, a tan, fuzzy vest, and a red and black long-sleeved stripped shirt with black leather gloves. _Oh my God! Holy crap! It IS Matt!_

"Zoe, dear? Are you alright?" her mother sounded from the other line back in Los Angeles, obviously worried from her daughter's sudden and long silence.

"Yes, mom, I'm fine. Look, something's come up. Can I call you back later?" she asked as she removed the phone from her ear. Zoe heard her mother say, "Okay, talk to you later," right before she pressed the "end" button. Making sure she was a good distance away from the crazy Kira supporters around her, Zoe opened her contacts list on her phone and pressed "talk" when the name of the man she had been so reluctant to call for the past six months was highlighted in dark green. She tapped her foot nervously while it rang a few times before it was answered by a deep voice.

"Hello?" The voice sounded rather confused; the man on the other line not knowing why someone would be calling him at a time like that.

Without even thinking, Zoe opened her mouth and let her voice echo into the speaker. "Don't get out of the car."

--

One black-booted foot slammed on the break when Matt saw all the black sedans of Takada's body guards parked in the intersection in which he was headed. The wheels on the red sports car squealed with protest and he turned the steering wheel hard to the right causing the car to spin a few times before finally coming to a stop in the middle of all the sedans. Turning the keys in the ignition to the "off" position, Matt rested his arms on the dashboard of the car and analyzed the situation. _Let's see, if I refuse to get out of the car, they could kill me if they wanted to. On the other hand, because they have their guns raised and at the ready right now, they may be planning on doing that anyway. Then again, if I tell them that I am connected to Takada's kidnapper and mention that they might want to ask me questions, then they won't…but before I get to the part where I mention asking me questions, they might shoot me any way. Well, I guess I could give it a shot anyway. _

Just as he reached for the door handle to let himself out of the car, his phone began to ring. "What the hell?" he wondered aloud. "Who would call me now, Mello?" Taking the phone out of his vest pocket, he looked at the caller-ID. "Unknown number. Huh, I guess it wouldn't hurt." Flipping it open, he pressed the "talk" button and answered it. "Hello?"

Almost immediately, a female voice he had never heard before, yet sounded strangely familiar said, "Don't get out of the car."

"What?" Who was this person, how did they know he was in the car, and more importantly, how did they get his number? "Do I know you?" he asked.

He heard an exasperated sigh on the other line before the person spoke again. "Don't tell me you don't remember my voice? Well, it has been almost six months, so I guess it is a bit understandable."

He really had no idea who this person was. "Who ARE you?" he asked, getting agitated.

"Oh, come on, six months ago, Los Angeles, the local Game Stop. You wanted to buy Assassin's Creed, but there was only one left and I got there first. We had a small conversation, then Mello showed up and dragged you off to work with him on the Kira case. Don't you remember?" The person on the other line sounded completely serious so he decided to take her word for it. He racked his memory, trying to remember ever meeting a girl in a gaming store. Then it hit him, she was right, how could he not remember! He had been thinking about her every day after Mello had dragged him out of that store to work on the Kira case. But what was her name? Linda? No, that was one of his friend's from Wammy's. Zelda? Of course not! Her name was not that ridiculous; he was probably thinking of the Legend of Zelda while trying to remember her name. _Gaah! What was it!? _He recalled the last name he had thought of. _Wait! It starts with a "Z." Z-Z-Zoe! Her name is Zoe! _

"I remember now! You're Zoe! I gave you my number after you told me I was cute."

"Good job, slowpoke," she said with a sarcastic tone. "Now, let's focus on the task at hand. They plan on killing you here so-."

Matt cut her off before she could finish what she was about to say. "Wait, you're in Japan? What are you doing in Japan?"

He heard her sigh. "Save the questions for later, now focus!"

"Another question, where are you?"

There was a short silence before she spoke again. "I'm right in front of you, twit; a bit separate from the rest of the crowd. My hair is in a ponytail, I'm wearing a black, leather jacket, a white shirt, baggy, camouflage pants, and black and white high-top converse shoes. Look straight ahead of you, I'm waving my arm high in the air."

He looked right in front of him and sure enough, there she was. Oh, how he missed her, sure, he had forgotten her name, but he had never forgotten her. He thought about her whenever he was bored or he just was not talking with Mello, and even when he was playing his games! He never let her slip his mind and replayed their meeting in his mind every day. Now that she was right in front of him again, his mind immediately switched to thoughts of her, of being with her. He almost forgot about the fact that he was staring Death right in the face. "I see you, now what were you saying?"

Another exasperated sigh. "I was saying that these guys out here with the guns are planning on killing you, so my advice to you is, STAY IN THE FUCKING CAR!" She practically screamed the last five words into the mouthpiece of her phone.

"I get it, I get it," he said in return as if trying to shut her up. "But I've already got an idea that will make sure that they don't kill me." He could almost sense her rolling her eyes.

"Well, it looks like these guys are growing impatient, so you better hurry, or they'll shoot you anyway."

"Very well," was all he said as he opened the door and bent over to get out. Just as he put one foot out with the door slightly ajar, the air was filled with flying bullets and sounds of the men before him pulling their triggers repeatedly, and maybe a bit more than necessary. "Hoh, SHIT!" he cried as he ducked behind the car door and heard the metal bullets embed themselves into the fiberglass, which was the only thing that stood between him and certain death. The glass window that sat right in front of his face, shattered and dozens of tiny glass shards flew at him and nestled right into his soft flesh. Doing the only thing that seemed plausible at the time, Matt laid down on his back on the leather seat, his breath coming in short rasps. The only thing that he could think of was seeing Zoe one more time, he did not care if he died right after, he just wanted to see her, see her smiling face and shining hazel eyes again.

He did not know what he felt about her, only that thinking about her kept him from feeling the sudden rising pain emanating from his foot, shoulder and side. He knew he had been hit, but he did not care. All of his instincts told him to lay there, to not move, to stay alive.

He had removed the phone from his ear while he had been sheltered behind the door. He did not realize it until he heard Zoe's voice come out of the receiver. "Holy crap, Matt, are you okay?" She sounded worried beyond all get out. Her voice was shaky, but still the strong voice he knew.

Slowly and painfully, he brought the phone back to his face and said quietly, "Yeah, I'm alive at least."

"Are you hit?" she asked, relieved but still sounding worried.

"Yeah, my left foot's been shot to hell, a bullet grazed my left side and about two or three bullets found a new home in my right shoulder. Also, a bunch of glass got me in the face, but aside from that, I'm just peachy, how about you?" Sarcasme was oozing out of his voice.

"You've been hit, good."

Matt could not believe his ears. "GOOD!?" he screamed. "How is me getting shot good!?"

"Keep your voice down!" she shot back. "Getting shot means that they will think that they did their job. Now, lay still for a while and pretend to be dead."

"But-," he tried to protest.

"And put out that damn cigarette, it makes you look like your still breathing," she said, completely ignoring him. Giving in, Matt did as she had instructed him. He quickly put out his cigarette then laid his head back down on the leather seat and played dead; he kept his phone on just in case something else came up that he could not see.

Everything was silent for the few minutes that he laid there, all except for the voices of the men conversing outside and his slow and steady breathing. Matt could not hear what they were talking about outside of the car, but he did not care, currently, blood leaked out of his wounds like a waterfall and his vision was beginning to get fuzzy around the edges. Eventually, not even thoughts of Zoe could keep the pain back for long. Now that he was feeling the full extent of the pain, it was hard for him just to keep quiet and not move. All his concentration was spent on trying to hold back the pain; he was so engulfed in his wounds that he almost missed Zoe's voice through the phone.

"Matt, you there?" she asked.

Matt brought the phone to his ear one more time. "Yes."

"Do you still have that smokescreen?" Her voice sounded scared and almost strained.

"Yes." He had no clue as to what she was planning.

"Does it have any shots left?"

"Yes, why do you ask?" Where was she going with this?

"Use it," was all she said.

"What?"

"Use it," she repeated. "They're going to check if you're still alive, use it quick."

"Wait, how will that-?"

"Just trust me, Matt! Now use the Goddamn smokescreen!"

Concluding that she had some sort of plan, he hung up the phone and grabbed his smoke gun. _Here we go again, _he thought bitterly. No sooner had he grabbed the gun, did he see the sunglasses-covered face of one of Takada's body guards. Ignoring the overwhelming pain in his shoulder, he pointed the gun in the man's face and pulled the trigger.

--

Zoe noticed right away when Matt had pulled the trigger. The man who went to check on him had taken a step back from surprise and then not a second later, the intersection was filled with smoke. That was her cue. As soon as she saw the smoke rise up from the red car, she forced her terrified feet to move and she ran towards the place where Matt was trapped. When she arrived, she noticed that the man who had been shot in the face was sprawled on the asphalt, blood oozing out of his forehead. He'll live, but he'll have one nasty scar for the rest of his life.

Quickly, she shoved the bullet-shredded door open as far as it would go and looked in to see the smiling face of Matt.

"Was that what you had planned?" he asked shrewdly. Zoe rolled her eyes and ignored him; she grabbed his good arm and pulled him out of the car, put her arm around his waist to support him and his arm over her shoulder and hobbled off away from the intersection. Thanks to the smokescreen, everyone who had been watching were too busy coughing and covering their eyes to notice the two sneaking away from the scene.

Out of the intersection and into a nearby parking garage elevator, they hobbled. Once inside, Zoe pressed the button labeled "4" and the doors closed almost immediately. Matt winced when the pressure of the floor moving up pushed against his torn-up foot. When the number above the door turned into a four, the doors slid open with a small ding and Zoe helped Matt out towards her blue Mustang.

"You brought your car?" Matt stated more to himself than her.

"Yes, I did. I switched colleges for one semester and my parents insisted that I bring my car."

Matt did a small attempt at a shrug but flinched from pain when the bullets in his shoulder rubbed against his bones.

Unlocking the car with her remote, Zoe opened the back door and laid Matt down in the back seat. She crawled in after him and shut the door. "What are you doing?" Matt asked her, a bit perturbed.

Zoe began digging around the floor in search of something. "We can't take you to a hospital, they'll discover that you had a hand in Takada's kidnapping right away and have you arrested or killed. My friend is studying to be a nurse; she could fix you up pretty well. Don't worry," she added when she saw his worried expression. "She's really smart and good at what she does; she'll fix you up good as new. However; there is one problem, she's a major Kira follower and probably saw you on television like I did."

"But then that's no different than taking me to a hospital," Matt argued.

"Wrong, Keiko's more of a ditz than anything, if we change your appearance a bit, she wouldn't be able to recognize you to save her life." Her hand fished around under the seat for a bit until she found what she was looking for. "Aha! Here's an extra T-shirt you can wear after we get rid of your regular clothes." Matt gave her a "where-did-you-get-that" look and she just shrugged. "I had a few boyfriends between when I first met you and now and one of them had a habit of changing in my car and leaving his clothes behind. I just never got around to giving them back, now, back to you." She examined him for a few seconds before reaching for his face saying, "The goggles need to go." She yanked them off his head and threw them in the front seat.

"Hey!" Matt cried trying to grab them back.

Zoe laid a hand on his arm. "Don't worry; they will stay in my car until you are able to move again." Sighing, he gave in and let her strip him down; devoid of anything but his pants and boots. She continued with her work muttering things like, "That needs to go," or "Shirt, gone." She was careful not to cause too much pain when she removed his shirt and once it was gone, she looked at him and realized just how close her face was to his. She could feel her face grow a bit heated but tried to ignore it as Matt moved his face closer and closer to hers until he had contacted his lips to hers for a span of only a few seconds.

--

It was rather odd having Zoe undress him like she did. He felt a blush creep up on his cheeks but it seemed like she did not notice because she was too intent in her work. When she carefully pulled off his stripped shirt, he unconsciously moved his head closer to hers. This time it was her turn to blush. He noticed it right away and upon seeing it, could not hold himself back any longer. His pent-up emotions were running like mad and he could not control his body motions as he leaned in closer to her, suddenly pressing his lips to hers for a few short seconds.

When he pulled away, he suddenly felt more embarrassed than he had ever felt in his life. _Why did I just do that? _His mind could not figure out his feelings towards Zoe but apparently his body could. He looked at her, his face not giving away any hint of his confusion, and saw that she was surprised and majorly embarrassed. Immediately, he tried to apologize.

"I am so sorry, Zoe!" he stammered out. "I don't know what came over me. Please, forget about it."

"No," she said with no emotion. Matt stared at her, obvious confusion on his face. "No need to apologize." She grabbed his face and moved in closer eventually locking her lips to his. He opened his eyes wide, shocked that she had actually complied with what he did before. He eventually accepted what she was doing as reality and closed his eyes, wrapping his good arm around her back and pulling her closer. He could not believe what was happening. It was not because it was his first kiss, no, he had many kisses before her, but he was in disbelief because he never expected to actually be able to kiss someone he thought he would never see again.

Soon, Zoe had slipped her tongue into Matt's mouth and he complied by doing the same with her. Eventually, Matt had broken away from their kiss and moved down to butterfly kiss her neck. She rested her head on his good shoulder and allowed him to remove her leather jacket and kiss further down her neck to her shoulder. After several seconds, she took his chin in her hand and pulled his face back up so his lips could meet hers once more. A few minutes later, it seemed that Zoe had completely forgotten about his wounds and began to get slightly rougher. Her left hand came up and grabbed his right shoulder, the one filled with bullets, and squeezed ever-so-slightly, making him squirm and pull back.

"I'm sorry!" she cried after he had grabbed his shoulder with his good hand. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to. I guess I kind of got carried away."

Matt shook his head. "No, it's alright. I understand. Just try to be a bit more careful, okay?" Zoe nodded and took the shirt that had lain, forgotten, on the floor a moment beforehand and slipped it over Matt's head. She took out a knife and made a few holes in the fabric then smeared some of his blood around it to make it look believable.

"There, now let's get you over to Keiko's before you bleed to death." It was said more as a joke, and he knew it, but something in what she said had a small ring of truth in it and that worried Matt.

"As fast as you can, preferably," he suggested as she crawled into the driver's seat and turned the car on. She only nodded as she backed out of the parking space and drove out of the building.

--

Once Zoe had pulled into her friend's driveway, she turned the car off and carefully pulled Matt out of the back seat. With his arm around her shoulder and hers around his waist, he was able to make it to the front door, wait for Zoe to find the right key, unlock the door, and let them step inside. She set Matt down on the couch, then went to wake up Keiko. Keiko protested at first but when Zoe mentioned that she had a friend that needed her "expertise" she hopped out of bed and marched out of the room to the living room.

When Keiko laid eyes on Matt, she smirked and turned to Zoe, who was glad Matt looked so different without his goggles. "I guess your little love session got a bit out of hand, didn't it?"

Zoe crossed her arms and glared at her friend and housemate. "We didn't have a 'love session,' Keiko, I found him in an alley on my way home, now fix him!" It sounded like she was referring to a toy rather than a man.

"Sure thing, kiddo," the twenty-one-year-old nurse said, helping Matt stand on his one good foot. "Where shall I put him?"

Zoe pointed down the hall in which she had just come from. "He can sleep in my room, I'll use the couch."

"Alrighty!" She and Matt wobbled down the hall and turned into a room two doors past Keiko's room. "Zoe, I'll be needing your help, though." She then entered the room and Zoe followed. Keiko carefully laid Matt down on Zoe's bed and took the shirt that Zoe had given him off and examined his wounds. "Not too shabby. Each bullet missed your bones by a mere millimeter. You are one lucky bastard." Keiko turned and looked back at the young American standing behind her. "Though with Zoe, you'd have to be."

Zoe rolled her eyes, sometimes Keiko really bugged her. This was one of those times. "Take a look at his foot as well."

Keiko looked down and just noticed how mangled Matt's foot was. "Damn, boy! What happened to you?" Neither Matt nor Zoe answered Keiko's question. Neither wanted to or had a valid excuse for what happened to him. "Zoe, c'mere." The American college student ran to her friend's side almost immediately.

"What do you need?" she asked.

Keiko handed her a wad of cloth. "I need you to stop the bleeding after I pull the bullets out, can you do that?"

Zoe nodded. "Yeah, I can do it." Upon hearing her answer, Keiko set to work. Matt ended up gripping Zoe's hand while the bullets were pulled out. He squeezed harder when Keiko began digging around, trying to find each bullet and remove it before the area became infected. When they had worked their way down to his foot, he almost screamed when Zoe and Keiko pulled his boot off. By the time they were ready to snap each of his bones back into place, Zoe gave him one of her pillows for him to bite on to keep himself from yelling in pain. The cracks and snaps were bad enough, she did not want his yelling mixed in there as well.

By the time they were done, every bullet they had removed was in an empty coffee container and Matt looked like a war victim with his foot in a cast and the gauze bandage wrapped around his torso. The glass was successfully pulled out of his face and the bleeding had stopped. Zoe was tossing the bloody cloth and washing her hands when she looked back at the poor nineteen-year-old lying helpless on her bed. "Holy crap, Matt, you bleed a lot." Keiko had left the room and had gone back to bed and left they two to be "alone," as she had put it.

"Well, what do you expect from someone who was shot more times than he can count?"

Zoe dried her hands on the towel she had brought with her from the bathroom. "Good point." She walked up next to the bed and smiled down at him. "I guess it was a good thing I took the opportunity to come out here for school, huh?" Matt smiled.

"I guess it was."

"Well, I'm exhausted." She leaned down and gave him a short peck on the lips. "Good night, Matt."

"Good night, Zoe." He paused until she reached the door. "I love you," he whispered. She smiled and left the room.

"I love you, too, Matt."

**A/N: Yeah, this is why it is AU-ish, just in case you didn't know. Anyway, I couldn't think of another way to end this so you'll just have to take what you get and live with it. I'm sorry! Matt's just too cool to kill off! I had to! Next chapter is going to be reeeaaally long, practically twice as long as this one, so prepare for that.**

**Review! If not, I will hunt you down, watch you for an indeffinate period of time, then sneak into your room and strangle you in your sleep. Don't think I won't! (I probably just made you paranoid, didn't I? I have a habit of doing that to a lot of people.) Or I could just break you neck, either way is fine by me.**


	3. Chapter 3

**A/N: Okay, as promised, the reason for why I called this story "Hands Down." Any of you heard the song Hands Down by Dashboard Confessional? If not, look it up, listen to the song, or read the words after finishing this story and you will find out. The song actually gave me the idea for this story. It's really good, if any of you like alternative rock music, you'll like this song. If you already knew this, congratulations but you get no prize from me other than this last chapter. Oh, and in case you haven't noticed, each chapter is named by lyrics from the song.**

**Disclaimer: Everthing belongs to the lovely creaters of Death Note and the now deseased founders of Knott's Berry Farm (Man, I'd sure like to meet them).** **Credit also goes to the wonderful and insanely, yet stupidly funny band Bowling for Soup (They ROCK!!).**

Chapter 3 And I Knew that You Meant It

A little over four years later, Matt and Zoe moved back to Los Angeles after Zoe had finished her semester at her Tokyo College and she graduated from UCLA number five in her class. Now twenty-three-years-old, Zoe began her second year at the LAPD Academy to become a police officer. She and Matt began dating while in Japan after he was able to walk again and while he was there, he lived with Zoe and Keiko in their small house just outside of the university campus. Kira had been caught and revealed as Light Yagami by Near, who would not have been able to do so without the unexpected help from Mello and Matt when they kidnapped Lady Takada.

The news of Mello's death came as a complete shock to Matt. He never expected his friend to die; he thought that it would most likely be himself who would die, not his friend. Zoe tried to comfort him after the discovery of his friend's death, but as usual, her mouth traveled faster than her brain and she let slip how she thought it was better that he was gone because of his selfish ways. Matt glared at her and did not talk to her for a few days after, but after a while he let her back in. Zoe understood, a friend was a friend, and it was still tough to lose one.

Zoe shut the front door of her new home and dropped her heavy bag to the floor. Sighing deeply, she went into her kitchen, grabbed a beer from her refrigerator, and plopped herself down on her couch intent on watching a good comedy show like Two and a Half Men and sipping on the alcoholic drink. She just started going on patrol with a senior officer who was rather rude to her. She did not like him that much and could not wait for the day when she was able to have a patrol car of her own and work her own cases.

No sooner had she turned on the television and flipped to the right channel did her home phone begin to ring.

"Fucking phone, why can't it just shut up for at least half an hour!?" she yelled out, practically slamming her beer bottle down on the coffee table. Picking herself up off the couch, Zoe walked back into the kitchen and grabbed her phone off its holder on the wall and pressed the "talk" button. "What?" she asked, sounding extremely ticked off.

"Jeez Zo, didn't think you'd be angry when _I _called." Zoe could not help but crack a smile when she heard the sarcastic voice of her boyfriend.

"Holy crap, sorry Matt, I'm just a bit ticked off at the moment." She walked back to the couch and picked up her beer again and took a sip. "So, what's up?"

"Oh nothing, besides the fact that I got some time off tomorrow and was wondering if you wanted to go on a day-long date with me to, say, Knott's?" His voice sounded suggestive but Zoe ignored it.

_Perfect timing, tomorrow is Sunday and I don't have to go into work. _"You couldn't have picked a better day for this. Tomorrow is my day off as well."

"So what do you say? Call it a date?" Zoe took another sip of her beer and chuckled.

"Knott's Berry Farm? Hell yes! I've loved that place since I was five."

"Great! I'll pick you up at your place at, say…ten?" Zoe suddenly burst out laughing. "What the hell? Why are you laughing?"

"Oh, no reason. It's just that for as long I've known you, you've never sounded so excited about actually going _outside._ It just sounds kind of funny."

Zoe heard an exasperated sigh on the other line. "You are one strange girl. I knew it the moment I first saw you in that Game Stop." He paused and she heard a few sound effects like someone dying come out of the speaker held to her ear. _Probably playing Assassin's Creed. I just let him borrow it yesterday and it sounds like he's almost done. Damn, he's good. Fucking bastard. _"So, see you tomorrow?"

"Sounds good, Matt. Love you." That said, she pressed the "end" button and tossed the phone onto the couch that she and Matt had spent a few long nights together and settled into an armchair across the room from the television. She grabbed the remote one more time and turned up the volume to one of her favorite television shows. When she heard the main character's last name, Charlie Harper, she suddenly noticed something that she had not before. "You know," she said as she took another sip of her beer. "I never got to know Matt's last name. Weird."

--

The next day, Zoe awoke at eight o'clock sharp and got dressed immediately. She searched in her dresser for something that seemed fitting for a day in July, the hottest month of the year. Finding what she was looking for, she pulled a pair of worn short, dark-blue jean shorts, a plain white, spaghetti-strap shirt and a loose, long-sleeve, black fishnet over shirt. Deciding it would be best to walk around with socks instead of no socks, she put on a pair of no-show socks underneath her yellow and black checkerboard converse shoes. Yep, she certainly liked to stand out when she was not in uniform.

She checked herself in the mirror and decided to leave her hair down but bring hair ties with her just in case she wanted to put it in a pony tail later on. Satisfied, she made her bed and left her room to the kitchen to eat her breakfast. She checked the clock and saw that she had an hour and a half before Matt came to get her; she took out some eggs, bacon, and pancake mix from her refrigerator, freezer, and pantry intent on having a decent breakfast before her day of fun. When she finished cooking everything, she sat down and ate, leaving the cleaning for when she got home. Once done shoveling food in her mouth, she left to brush her teeth and wash her face. She could not have bad breath when on a date, could she?

When she walked out of the bathroom, she glanced at the clock one more time. _9:30, well, I guess I could play a bit of Daxter while I wait. _Plopping herself down on her couch, feet resting on the armrest on the other side of the couch, she took out her PSP and turned it on. For the next half hour, Zoe took pleasure in moving the small, orange, egotistical Ottsil around and kicking Precursor butt. She had just gotten to a save point when she heard the doorbell ring. Jumping up, she turned off her PSP, threw it on the couch, and ran off to answer it. Looking through the peep hole in the wood, she saw a distorted picture of a red-head with goggles and a striped shirt. Smiling, she opened the door and immediately tackled poor Matt, almost knocking him to the ground.

"Wow, excited much?" Zoe glared at him, her arms around his neck.

"Can't a girl be happy to see her boyfriend?" she pouted. Matt just rolled his eyes and grabbed her hand in his, turning around and leading her to his car, a bright red Camero with red stripes running along the side. "Heh, it never ceases to amaze me that your car matches the shirt you always wear." It was true; the red and black striped shirt he had on did match the colors of his car.

"Hey, yeah, it does match my shirt," Matt said as he opened the passenger-side door and allowed Zoe to get in before shutting it.

"You just _now _noticed?" she asked after he had run around the front of the Camero and sat down in the driver's seat, shutting the door and turning the ignition key. The car roared to life and Matt switched the transmission into "drive" and sped off down the street.

"Yeah, I just noticed," he said, sounding a bit embarrassed and guilty at the same time. "I really only got the paint job because I thought it looked cool."

Zoe smiled. "Funny how you think both your car's paint and your shirt look 'cool.'" She said sarcastically. Matt did not answer, only turned on his car radio, which played a CD that Zoe had never heard before. "What band is this?" she asked while Matt braked to turn around a corner in the road.

"Bowling for Soup," he answered. Zoe nodded. She had never heard the band before, but so far, they sounded pretty good. Then a song came on that the radio screen said was titled "High School Never Ends."

_"Reese Witherspoon, she's the prom queen,_

_Bill Gates, captain of the chess team,_

_Jack Black a clown,_

_Brad Pitt the quarterback,_

_Seen it all before, I want my money back!"_

Zoe chuckled but the song continued.

_"The whole damn world is just as obsessed_

_With who's the best dressed_

_And who's having sex._

_Who's in the club,_

_Who's on the drugs,_

_Who's throwing up before they digest."_

She could not hold it in any longer. Without thinking, she burst out laughing. Matt stared at her but shrugged it off; he, too, had laughed pretty hard when he first heard the song.

--

Matt pulled the red Camero into the parking lot of Knott's Berry Farm after he had paid the man in the booth before they came in. He parked in a space close to the entrance and turned off the engine after pulling on the parking brake and switching the transmission into "park." He got out and went around the other side and opened the door for Zoe. He took her hand and helped her out of the seat and closed the door as they started walking to the entrance of the amusement park.

"You're not wearing your gloves," she said when they arrived at the back of the line. A few kids ran past them to catch up to their parents before they entered the park. "That's new."

Matt smiled. "It's July, Zo." He reached into his back pocket with his free hand and took out his wallet, ready to pay for their tickets to Knott's. "Do you honestly think I would burn up my hands by wearing black, leather gloves in the hottest month of the year?" He looked at her as if expecting to see confusion on her face but instead saw understanding.

"Ah, I see," was all she said before their spot in line arrived in front of the ticket booth.

Matt paid for their tickets then gave one to Zoe and kept his own. He allowed Zoe to go first; she handed her ticket to the waiting young boy then passed through the spinning gate, Matt followed close behind. Once inside, he caught up to Zoe who had stood a few yards in, waiting for him, and put his arm over her shoulder. "So," he began. "Where do you want to go first?"

Zoe smirked deviously up at him. "Why don't we get a map to figure this out, smart ass?" _A map! Of course! Why didn't I think of that? Wow Matt, you're really on a roll today, and it's only the beginning. God, and I still have that question to ask her, too. _She ran off to a young teen with acne and grabbed a packet small enough to fit in her back pocket and walked back to him, opening it up as she went. "Let's see," she said mainly to herself then to him. "The Silver Bullet and Ghost Rider are closest. What do you say, which one first?"

Matt studied the map from over her shoulder. "Hmm, I heard that Ghost Rider is pretty fun at night, I think we should wait until it's dark to go on that, so it looks like the Silver Bullet is up." Zoe folded the map back up and stuck it in her back pocket. Matt watched and noticed that only a centimeter of the packet was left sticking out of the pocket. He took her hand in his and smiled down at her while saying, "Well, shall we go?"

She smiled back and nodded, leading him off in the direction of the red and yellow rollercoaster. "This coaster is rather new so the line for it might be rather long." _Oh yay, lines. _

"That's alright. I just hope it will be worth it."

"Oh, don't worry, it will be."

They walked down the paved walkway, past the bright green trees and brown park benches, to the large, winding rollercoaster. As soon as the entrance to the ride was in sight, Matt let out a small groan. The line took up almost the entire space made for it. _God dammit! This ride better be worth the __wait. _They entered the line behind a group of older teens who looked to be the prepiest kids Matt had ever seen. When he and Zoe approached them, they looked the couple up and down and the girls in the group gave Matt hungry stares while the boys stared down Zoe's body.

Matt noticed that she did her best to try and ignore the teens but he could see that they were getting on her nerves, no matter how hard she tried to conceal it. About ten minutes and twenty feet later, Matt could not hold back his anger at the boys any longer and finally had to say something to get them to leave his girlfriend alone. "You better watch it, kids," he said, his anger just barely held back from his voice. "She's a cop, and she's mine." He put his arm around her shoulder protectively and glared at the boys through his orange-tinted goggles. One of the teens, a burly athletic boy, let out a chuckle.

"A cop, huh?" He grinned at his friend, a slightly smaller, but still muscular-built boy, who smiled and nodded for the burly boy to continue. The girls giggled and moved out of the boy's way as he stepped forward towards Matt. "Yeah right. What's going to stop me from taking her from you, _kid_?" He put emphasis on the last word, mocking what Matt had said earlier and not believing that the two were old enough to have a career. Matt had his own job in the law enforcement, but in his own field. As a techy, he naturally made a good hacker and did some work for the new L, or his long-time acquaintance, Near.

Matt just sighed. _They're not going to give up, are they? Hoh boy, here we go. _"You might be surprised, but we're older than you think." The teen cocked an eyebrow.

"I'm twenty-three," Zoe cut in.

"And I'm twenty-four, so you might want to just drop it." He noticed the boy began to flex his hands, opening them and then closing them, in agitation. _Interesting. What comes next should be good._

"If she's a cop, how come she's allowing you to provoke me?" _I'm provoking him? Wow._

Zoe smiled and slipped her hand around Matt's waist before she spoke in answer. "I'm not on duty right now and this is getting entertaining. That's why I'm just going to sit back and watch." The line moved again and Matt let go of his girlfriend, allowing her to walk first behind the attitude-prone teenagers. Their spot in line moved about fifteen more feet before they stopped.

"Listen, goggle boy," the teen growled after he stopped walking, his back to Matt and Zoe. The kid was obviously agitated and prone to snapping at any time. "If she really is a cop and is not going to do anything, then I guess there's nothing stopping me from doing this!" Suddenly, he spun around and threw his fist right at Matt's face, intent on breaking his nose.

With skillful ease and dexterity, Matt moved his head to the side, effectively dodging the kid's attack. Surprise written all over his face, the force of the punch made the teen stumble forward and fall into the person in line behind Matt and Zoe; a large man with long hair and had an overwhelming smell of corn nuts. Matt turned to Zoe and saw an amused smile spread across her face. She knew that he did not need her help when it came to small fights like this. During her past year at the police academy, he had accompanied her to her self-defense classes and learned a few things himself. He even practiced with Zoe a few times to help him learn faster.

The boy, now annoyed further, regained his balance and glared at Matt. "Alright, that's it!" He turned back around and swung his fist again. _Back for more? _Matt thought, surprised. _Alright. _This time, instead of dodging, he grabbed the kid's wrist and twisted it in a very uncomfortable position, disrupting his center of balance and temporarily ruining his posture.

He took a sharp intake of breath from pain before Matt spoke to him. "You may be strong, but you've got no idea how to fight properly, so why don't you just call it a day? How's that sound?"

Gritting his teeth, the young boy glared at Matt and nodded only once before his wrist was released. He stood, rubbing his forearm, and walked back to his friends. The three girls he was with giggled to each other and looked back dreamily at Matt while he removed his goggles and placed them on the top of his head. "Humph, some cop," the teen growled. "Needs some low-life skinny guy to protect you." Matt noticed Zoe roll her eyes, purposefully ignoring the kid's remark. He felt her hand grab him around the waist again and he looked down at her smiling face.

Something about the event reminded him of an old friend of his, someone he knew that he would never see again, but desperately wished that he could. Zoe noticed his sudden silence and nudged him in the side just as the line began to move again. "What's wrong?" she asked.

"Oh, just thinking," he replied, putting his arm around her shoulder again. Somehow, she knew exactly what about.

"About Mello?" Her voice was devoid of any emotion when she spoke what was on his mind. _She guessed it, damn._

Matt nodded. "Yeah, just thinking that if he was put in my shoes a few minutes ago, he would have completely pummeled that guy just for looking at him funny."

Zoe laughed. "Yeah, that sounds like Mello." She squeezed him tighter. "I know you miss him, and, oddly enough, I do too."

They continued through the line without any more unfortunate run-ins with the group in front of them and made it to the rollercoaster cars with no more mishaps. He and Zoe strapped themselves in and after a worker came and checked if each safety belt was secure, the train moved forward and continued with incredible speed around the track. _Holy shit, Zoe was right, _Matt thought during the ride. _That line was definitely worth it. _When the ride ended, they got off and examined the map to see what they wanted to do next. Deciding on the Calico Mine Ride, Zoe stuffed the map into her back pocket once again and they headed off towards the giant stone hill in which the ride resided. Matt was fascinated to find that the places where one sat was a mine cart pulled by a small train engine.

After the Calico Mine Ride, they headed for Supreme Scream, a big tower that took people up 254 feet in the air and then dropped them, letting gravity take them back to earth. After Supreme Scream, Zoe insisted that they ride on another rollercoaster. Looking around the park, she spotted a tall arch that was part of a coaster track and suggested they do that one. It turned out to be a rollercoaster call The Xcelerator, a ride that accelerates from zero to eighty-miles-per-hour in just two seconds and takes the riders to a height of 208 feet in the air before coming back down and twisting around several times and finally coming to a stop back at where it started. Shrugging, Matt decided to give it a try and almost lost his goggles in the process. He kept them on his eyes after that.

By the time one o'clock rolled around, Zoe and Matt had gone on two more roller coasters, The Boomerang and The Jaguar, battled some feisty preteen boys in bumper cars, and rested their feet for a bit on the merry-go-round. Matt was against it at first but Zoe let out her inner child, made a pouting face, and eventually he had to give in. Zoe ran and grabbed the first thing that appealed to her eyes, a zebra, and Matt took the one right next to her, a regular horse.

Once they got off the merry-go-round, Zoe grabbed her stomach when an audible growling noise issued out of it. It was time to find some lunch. Matt, himself, was hungry as well. _I'm surprised I made it this long without a cigarette, _he thought as he and Zoe walked over to the closest and most appealing restaurant, La Victoria Cantina. _I'll have to get one soon though. _

They went through the buffet and took what looked good or what they knew was good then went outside and sat down at a two person table under an umbrella to eat. When they were finished , they threw their trash in the garbage and put their trays back in the restaurant, then walked over to the Hat Dance and watched young children with their parents spin sombrero-topped carts till they got dizzy or sick from watching the world pass by them several times. They stopped next to a park bench where Matt took a pack of cigarettes out of his back pocket, stuffed one in his mouth, and lit the end with a lighter he pulled out with his cigarette pack. As soon as his was lit, he held out the pack to Zoe.

"Want one?" he asked, his cig still in his mouth. She shrugged.

"Sure, why the hell not?" She took her once-in-a-blue-moon cigarette from the pack and Matt reached down to her and lit up his lighter to the end of her cancer stick and set it ablaze. When his cigarette had burned halfway down, Matt noticed a small boy, no older than four years of age, cautiously walk up behind his girlfriend, stop right behind her, then raise a tentative hand and pull on the end of Zoe's black, fishnet over-shirt.

--

Zoe allowed Matt to light her cigarette for her. She usually was not one to smoke but only one now-and-then was not so bad. Unlike mister chain smoker who stood next to her, she was not addicted. In fact, she rarely ever had a cigarette. She only started when she met Matt and even then, after five years, she only had three or four cigarettes.

She lost track of how long they stood in the Fiesta Village area of Knott's Berry Farm smoking. The only sense of time she had was how far her cancer stick had burned down. Yet she had only smoked half the cig when she felt a slight tug on the bottom of her fishnet shirt. Confused and curious as to who would be pulling on her shirt, she turned around to see no one behind her. As if on a gut feeling, she looked down to see a small boy, around the age of four, crying and looking at her hopefully. _Holy crap, Tyler? _She was surprised, she had seen the boy before; he lived right across the street from her.

Squatting down to his eyelevel, she laid a hand on his shoulder and gave him a comforting smile. "Hey, Tyler. I didn't know you were here. What's wrong?"

The boy named Tyler sniffled and wiped his nose with the back of his hand. "O-officer Mckinsey, I can't find my mom." Fresh tears rolled down his cheeks after he spoke and Zoe stubbed out what was left of her cigarette and wrapped her arms around the boy's shoulders.

"There there, Tyler. We'll help you find her." She released him then looked at his adorable little face. "Does she have her phone with her?" she asked.

The little boy nodded. "Ah-huh." He reached into the pocket of his jeans and pulled out a slip of paper. "She said if I ever got lost, I was to find someone who works here and have them call this number," he said, handing her the slip of paper while he wiped the back of his hand against his nose again.

Zoe took the paper from the crying boy and read the contents. "Why didn't you do as your mom told you?" she asked, more curious than accusing.

"I'm too afraid to talk to strangers," he replied innocently. "I was about to when I saw you."

The young cop stood up and handed the paper to Matt. She took Tyler's hand and pulled out her cell phone from the front pocket of her shorts. "Could you read off the numbers for me, Matt?" she asked. The gamer complied, his cigarette never leaving his mouth.

"Seven-three-six. Eight-one-seven-zero." After each number he read off to her, she pressed the corresponding button on her keypad. Pressing the "talk" button, she placed the speaker to her ear and waited for the person on the other line to pick up. After only two rings, a woman's voice, strained and worried, answered. "Yes?"

"Mrs. Carlos? This is Zoe Mckinsey."

"Zoe?" The woman on the other line sounded confused. "How did you get my cell number?"

The young cop ignored the elder woman's question and got straight to the point. "Mrs. Carlos, I found your son, Tyler. He's with Matt and me in the Fiesta Village next to the Hat Dance. Where are you?"

Zoe heard an exhausted sigh come from the phone speaker. "Oh, thank God! I thought I lost him for good. I'm by the Sky Cabin. I'll be there in about ten minutes." _Good, he didn't wonder far._

"Sounds good. See you then."

"Thank you so much, Zoe. You are amazing." She sounded relieved.

"No problem, I love to spend time with little Tyler." That said, she snapped her phone shut and looked down at the boy just recently mentioned. "Do you want some ice cream, Tyler?" The little boy nodded excitedly and hopped off the bench he had sat on while Zoe was on the phone with his mother.

When they were walking toward a small snack vendor, Matt turned to the young woman beside him and asked, "How do you know that boy?"

Zoe shrugged. "He lives across the street from me," she answered when they arrived at the snack stand. "One chocolate ice cream cone, please," she said to the vendor, who immediately nodded and turned to get the ice cream. "When his mom had to stay late for work, I would babysit him. He really is a sweet kid." She paid for the frozen treat while Tyler reached up and grabbed the cone with both hands and immediately began licking hungrily. He looked up at Matt as he ate his chocolate ice cream and said his next words completely serious.

"Mister, are you Officer Mckinsey's husband?"

--

He certainly did not expect that question to come out of the boy's mouth when he looked at Matt. He thought the boy named Tyler would ask something more along the lines of, "What's that in your mouth?" But of course not, the true question had to be, "Mister, are you Officer Mckinsey's husband?" Matt nearly dropped his cigarette from his mouth when he heard the question. The worst part about it was that the kid sounded completely serious. Matt felt his cheeks warm up a bit after the boy had asked the question of the day. _Fuck, why does that question have to haunt me? Zoe doesn't even know my real name, I haven't even told her my last name. How could I be her husband? Damn that question. I've been meaning to ask her all day but haven't picked up the courage to do so yet. God fucking dammit!_

Letting out a short laugh, Matt smiled down at the boy who looked at him with large eyes. "No, Tyler, I'm not her husband, I'm her boyfriend."

The little boy licked his ice cream again. "Oh, so you're just her friend?" The kid wasn't getting it. _No, I am not just her friend! _Matt wanted to scream at the kid, but kept his cool. "No, I'm not that either, I'm more than a friend to her."

"So you _are _her husband?" Matt sighed. This was getting nowhere. He was about to explain the situation better to the kid, but Zoe got their first.

"Tyler, your mom's here." The boy looked away from Matt and searched around the park eagerly for his mother. Not two seconds later, Mrs. Carlos ran up to the three of them and hugged her son. "Mommy!"

"Tyler! Oh thank God!" She released him and examined his body. "You're not hurt are you?"

"No, Officer Mckinsey and her husband took good care of me," the boy said, looking back at the two behind him. Matt sighed, this kid was never going to understand.

Tyler's mother chuckled. "Oh, honey, he's not her husband, he's her boyfriend. That's in between friend and husband."

The boy's eyes opened wide. "Oh! So he's her _boy_friend!" _So _now_ he gets it. Jeez, took him long enough. _The next few minutes were spent conversing with Tyler's mother. She kept insisting to give he and Zoe something in return for helping her find her son but they both were humble and told her that they wanted nothing in return, it was just what a good neighbor would do for another.

After sitting and chatting for about half an hour, Matt and Zoe said goodbye to Mrs. Carlos and young Tyler and continued on to the next ride, Montazooma's Revenge. Zoe took out her map of the park and they both decided to go to the Buffalo Nickel Arcade in The Boardwalk area of Knott's after the major rollercoaster. They spent almost two hours playing games and never growing tired of them. When they spent almost a full hour on Mortal Combat, Zoe winning a few matches but Matt winning nearly all of them, they gathered a crowed of young kids, both girls and boys alike. When he and Zoe faced off, the girls in the crowd would cheer for her character and the boys would cheer for his. The two were very popular with young children. They only stopped when Zoe checked the time on her phone and flipped out, dragging Matt away from the games by the back of his stripped shirt while complaining that they were running out of time for other rides.

She took her map out again and they headed for The Boomerang once more, a rollercoaster filled with many loops and twists that sends people in forward, and then brings them back backwards. After The Boomerang, the two went on several different rides and saw amazing shows before dark. They got sopping wet sitting in the front of the cab in The Perilous Plunge, laughed heartily at the Ghost Town Stunt Show, got dizzy on the Wilderness Scrambler, and kicked ass at the park game booths. When they came across a shooting booth, Zoe dragged Matt over to it, insisting that she wanted to try shooting a rifle, even if it was a fake one. He gave in to her right away and paid for her "ammo" before she began knocking down every target offered to her.

"Damn, you're a good shot for never firing a rifle before," Matt commented on his girlfriend after she had taken out the last target.

"Well what do you expect?" she asked in a way that suggested that he should have known better. "I'm a cop; I have to have good aim." _True, _Matt thought as they were walking away to try their hand at another game. _I should have known. _

They played several more games and by the time they got to the last game, night had already fallen. "One more game before Ghost Rider?" Matt asked before he paid the vendor.

"Sure, why not?" Zoe handed the three plastic balls to him after she had taken them from the game vendor. "But this time, you play." _Me?_

He took them from her anyway and shrugged. "Okay, this one's for you, then," he said as he threw the ball with the best accuracy he could muster. To his surprise, it went right where he wanted it to. He blinked, unbelieving. _Whoa, didn't expect that to happen. _He took another ball out of his other hand. _Let's see what happens when I try again. _Once again, the ball hit the bull's eye dead center. Still disbelieving, he tried the last ball and it, too, hit the dead center of the target. _Holy shit, I've never been able to do that before._ The vendor came over to him and congratulated him.

"Congratulations, sir," the kid behind the counter said. "You may have your pick of any of the prizes on display."

Matt glanced over all the stuffed animals hanging from the ceiling of the game stand. There was a large variety of assorted animals from western animals such as horses and wolves, to those only found in Africa. He was having trouble deciding what to get when Zoe chose for him.

"Oh, get the monkey!" she cried, leaning one arm on his shoulder and pointing at an orange and gray stuffed monkey that hung between a zebra and an elephant.

Matt stared at her through his tinted goggles. "You want the monkey?" he asked as if confirming a food order.

"Yes! Get the monkey." Matt sighed and nodded to the game vendor who turned around and pulled down the monkey in question and handed it to Matt, who, in turn, handed it to Zoe.

Satisfied, Matt took her hand in his and they both headed for their last ride, the Ghost Rider wooden rollercoaster. When they arrived, the line was about as long as the one for The Silver Bullet was at the beginning of the day. Fortunately, they did not get in line behind anyone like those teenagers from that morning and their time in line was happy and uneventful. After about forty minutes, they finally arrived at the coaster car. Matt watched patiently while Zoe put her orange monkey where normal women would put their purses and then crawled into the front car next to him. The ride was rather exhilarating whenever they went over the drop-offs. There were no lights so one could not see how far down, or how steep, the drop was until you went over it. It was the most fun Matt had ever had on any rollercoaster he had ever been on and was disappointed when it was over, but was unwilling to stand through the long line again.

After Zoe grabbed her monkey from where she had left it before the ride, they walked out the exit only to be met with loud and amazingly bright fireworks. Matt stared up at them in surprise. _Oh yeah, it's the Fourth of July, isn't it?_ He looked back down to see Zoe standing a few feet in front of him, staring at the fireworks just as he was. He walked up behind her and wrapped his arms around her shoulders, resting his head on her shoulder and nuzzling her cheek.

"Happy Fourth of July, Zoe," he whispered in her ear.

"Same to you, Matt," she said in return. _Shit, not that name again. It's been hanging over my head like a fucking rain cloud all day. I _have _to tell her or she may never forgive me if I don't. God dammit! Better late than never, right? _

"Zoe?" He began with a question, not really knowing why.

"Yes?" she asked, placing her hands on his, which rested just above her breasts.

_Here goes nothing. _"I need to tell you something, something about my name."

"What? Are you finally going to tell me your last name?" She sounded hopeful and excited at the same time.

"Well, yes and no." She cocked her head to the side as more fireworks exploded and lit up their faces. "You see, Matt isn't my real name." She stiffened and released herself from Matt's hold.

Turning around to face him, she stared with at him stern face. "It's not? Then what is it?"

Matt hung his head. She was going to break up with him for sure. "Matt is just a nickname I've had since I arrived at the Wammy House. My real name is Mail Jeevas." There was a long and dead, awkward silence between the two for some time, the only sound coming from the fireworks exploding in the background and the cheers of the crowd when a particularly big one exploded, lighting the night sky with bright blues, purples, and reds.

"Mail?" Zoe asked, breaking the ice and sounding angry. Matt nodded. "I like 'Matt' better," she finished ecstatically before jumping on him and wrapping her arms around his neck. "Dammit, Matt, I thought you'd never tell me your name!"

Matt, now Mail Jeevas, opened his eyes wide, completely taken aback by Zoe's reaction. _She's not mad?_ He was completely baffled. Any normal girl would have been rid of him on the spot, but Zoe? No, she was happy. "You're not angry?" he asked in a surprised tone.

"No, you twit! I'm happy, in case you haven't noticed." She loosened her grip on his neck and pecked him lightly on the lips. "It's about bloody time. Now let's get out of here. It's getting late and I have to go to work tomorrow." Matt nodded and followed her out of the amusement park to the parking lot. Once back in his car, he lit another cigarette with his car lighter and drove off. _Fuck, I still have to ask her that question. Well, I guess it could wait until we get back to her house. _

On the drive back to Los Angeles, they sat in silence aside from Zoe singing along to the Bowling for Soup CD he had in his stereo. _Wow, she picks up on the words pretty quick. _

After a half-hour drive, Matt pulled his red and black Camero up alongside the sidewalk in front of Zoe's house. Opening the car door for her, they walked up to the front gate to her house. Zoe tried to open it but it would not budge. "Oh, shit," she breathed. "I locked it before I left but forgot the key inside." She sighed. "Now how am I supposed to get in?"

Matt studied the stucco wall that surrounded her front yard and got an idea. "Hold on," he told her. "I'll get us in." He then ran and jumped up on top of the wall.

"Wait, Matt!" she called after him but said nothing more when he lost his balance and rolled off the top of the wall and landed with a thud on the other side, and dropping his cigarette out of his mouth. He stomped on it before it burned the plants it landed on.

Picking himself up, he let out a small, "Oww…" He heard Zoe's voice come from the other side of the wall.

"You fell on the rose bushes, didn't you?"

Matt croaked out a weak "Yeah…" before picking himself up, walking over to the gate, unlocking it and letting Zoe in. "There you go," he said when she walked past him.

"Thanks, Matt." He followed her to her front door, his mind racing on overdrive the entire time as he watched her pull her hair back into a pony tail. _This is the time to ask her, ask her _now, _God __dammit! If you don't, you'll forever hate yourself. You know what? Fuck it! I'm just going to come right out with it. _

"Um, Zoe?" he began. She turned around to face him right before she was going to unlock her front door.

"Yes, Matt?" He stepped onto her front porch and stood in front of her.

"There-there's something I want to ask you. Actually, I've wanted to ask you all day but just couldn't bring myself to come out with it." He did not know where this would take him but decided it best to try.

"What is it?" she asked, sounding hopeful and moving closer to him inch by inch.

"W-well, since you know my real name now and did not care that I had kept it from you all these years," he began again, shoving his hand in his pocket and gripping the small, felt box that had been sitting in his front pocket collecting dust and pocket lint all day. He pulled it out but kept it hidden from Zoe's sight. "I thought that now would be the best time to," Matt's stomach filled with dancing butterflies as he bent down on his knee and held out the felt box, opening it to reveal a silver ring with two small diamonds on it. "Ask you to marry me?"

Zoe made no emotional expressions but just grabbed his hand with the ring in it, lifted him to his feet, grabbed his waist with both hands and slowly moved her face closer to his, eventually pressing her lips onto his passionately. The kiss lasted for only a short thirty seconds but to Matt, it was as long as a lifetime. When she finally drew back, her face hovered only an inch away from his when he finally found his voice again.

"Is that a yes?" he asked, the butterflies beginning to die down. To his great delight and joy, she whispered only one word to him.

"Yes."

--

Several months later, Zoe and Matt held their wedding in her parent's backyard and Zoe's mother cried the entire time, from when her father walked her down the aisle, to when her best friend and Maid of Honor, Carrie Thomas, stood up at the reception to give her speech, to the very end when all the guests left and she and Matt left in a limo to get ready to leave for their honeymoon.

To Matt's great surprise, Near came to the wedding as well. Provided he was still in his over-sized white pajamas, but he was still there.

Zoe became one of the best officers in the LAPD and was eventually promoted to Investigator a few years later where she stayed happily. She was one of the few law enforcement officers that Near trusted and was able to work several cases with him and Matt.

**A/N: And there you go. Yay! I actually finished a story! I need to go celebrate now! I'm actually now going to finish that Rufus ShinraxOC that I have not worked on for the longest time. I only got about one and a half chapters left so it should be done soon. **

**I will be starting college this coming Fall semester at the University of New Mexico and will be doing Navy ROTC. Yeah, I'm not a COMPLETE and total nerd loser like most people obsessed with anime but I still have my guilty pleasures like everyone else on this God forsaken site. Anyway, wish me luck in college, my peeps! Love you all!**

**Don't forget to review, or I'll have to go military on your ass and you don't want that, trust me. **

**Oh, one last thing. My sister just got an account on this site and she wants me to advertize for her. Her name on here is FoxFire Pheonix and she has written, or "is writing", a Treasure Planet story. Look her up, she's actually pretty funny. **


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